Best Diamond I Found at Blue Nile Today

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Best Diamond I Found at Blue Nile TodayRobert Hensley2016-06-14T22:09:44+00:00

Best Diamond I Found

Look for a diamond like this!

[NOTE: Of course, this is just my opinion, with my bias toward beauty and against rarity you can’t see and don’t need. It’s my thing to get value above “story”, but that’s just me, and almost every dealer I know. The stones WE buy are not the stones that most dealers tell YOU to buy. I don’t buy the hype, but they want YOU to.]

The Diamond ::

My Reasons ::

Overall, this is a super deal for the price. Everything about this diamond says Beauty, Value, Sensibility, Quality, Desirability… and the price is really right at $5,950.

Shape ::
Round brilliant is still the best overall value for brilliance, scintillation, and fire. Every other shape has its advantages, and story, but the Round cannot be topped. It’s just the physics.

If she wants something different, then GET that! No arguments. (Your first bit of relationship advice from Robert.)

Carat Weight ::
I am using 1.00 carat as a popular choice. The other quality choices below all apply, no matter what size you like. But it is my experience that the 1 carat diamond is the most popular desire, if you can go for that price range. This diamond is going to give you a 1 carat diamond for a lot less investment, which I will explain from here below.

Choosing the carat weight (most people say “size”) for your diamond is largely a matter of investment, so do what is comfortable.

Do NOT go so far that you start your marriage in debt over the ring. (Your second bit of relationship advice from Robert.)

Color ::
G combines my preference for colorlessness, without having to pay for E or F color. In a setting, with all the colors of your clothes, the walls around you and your hair, etc., this is going to look the same in actual use as anything higher. Higher colors can rarely be noticed, once they are in a ring, on a finger, and with the oils and dirt from the environment. Just the truth. All the rarity in the world (D,E color) won’t look any better than an F or G color. To be truthful, the color of your clothes, and the walls around you, have a much greater effect on the color you see in the diamond, than the actual grade. Sorry, just the truth that no one ever talks about.

Clarity ::
This stone has very small inclusions, confirmed by GIA grading as VS2, so they will not be visible to the naked eye, and difficult to see with a loupe. And they are located away from the center of the table, which makes them even harder to find. People still ask: “but what about feathers, are they bad?”. If it says VS2, then they are not bad, by definition of VS2, which means that everything is small and structurally insignificant, as well has having nothing that interferes with light flow.

CutGrade ::
Excellent means excellent. (Blue Nile uses the term “Ideal” which just means they like Excellent Cut Grade more than any other). The Cut Grade takes so much into consideration you would be shocked. For instance, the shape of a well-cut round brilliant is designed to take in most of its light from 17-35 degrees on either side of straight up. That means, it was designed to collect or “harvest” light that comes around your head. The lights above you are obscured by your head, so the best cut will not rely on light that is straight above you. Only a diamond that is cut with that in mind will gather sufficient light from around you to yield the greatest brilliance.

Excellent Cut Grade takes everything you never imagined into consideration already, from crown angle to pavilion depth. Actually, it’s a lot more than that too. Cut Grade considers the actual light performance, which is more than the measurements of the parts. It tells you how everything works together, as each factor affects all the others in complicated ways.

The Cut Grade is your best and most important measure of beauty, since Cut is the main determinate of light performance in all its glory.

Fluorescence ::
I actually look for some fluorescence in a diamond, and you should too, in my opinion. Fluorescence is totally misunderstood. There is no harm from fluorescence until it gets to Very Strong or higher. On the contrary, faint to medium blue fluorescence is actually a good thing for me, because it is one of the unique diamond traits that you don’t find in other gems, and it is a way to help you identify the diamond later. And it’s also really cool to show that faint blue glow in a night club under the black lights.

Fluorescence is so commonly misunderstood, that it is avoided, making stones with some fluorescence a better deal. So many people fear fluorescence because they don’t understand it, so they don’t want those diamonds, so they are priced lower to move. Deal!

Culet ::
The most popular for the past 20 years has been No culet. It allows for the best light flow, and prevents leakage that happens when you have a large culet, or flat facet at the bottom.

Table ::
58% or so is a very good place to be, offering a great combo of surface area to allow light in, but not so much that it impinges on the crown angles needed to produce fire, technically called dispersion, which is the effect of separating white light into the colors of the rainbow.

Depth ::
62.4% is an ideal measurement for a 58% table. But there are so many other factors to be considered as light bounces from facet to facet, that it is not possible to use just table and depth as a measure of beauty, like most consumers (and dealers for that matter) thought in the old days, about 20 years ago. Do not let that old story sway you. Go with the Cut Grade to know beauty, because it considers many factors of actual light flow, and not a couple of parameters out of context.

PavilionAngle :: 41.10 degrees — within the ideal range, and the Excellent Cut Grade says the light performance is beautiful, meaning that the pavilion angle works perfectly with everything else to maximize and balance fire, brilliance, and scintillation.

CrownAngle :: 35.50 degrees — The Excellent Cut Grade says the light performance is beautiful, meaning that the crown angle works perfectly with everything else to maximize and balance fire, brilliance, and scintillation.

Crown % :: 15.00 % — within the ideal range, and the Excellent Cut Grade says the light performance is beautiful, meaning that the crown % works perfectly with everything else to maximize and balance fire, brilliance, and scintillation.

Length to Width Ratio ::
1.00 is right on the money. This shows the diamond is very round, rather than oval, and that the stone will perform well. When the diamond is perfectly round, the angles of the facets are uniform, and the light flow is maximized.

Length/Width/Depth ::6.40 mm x 6.37 mm x 3.99 mm is excellent. Look at the first two numbers mainly. The difference should be very small, which it is here, only 0.03 mm from the largest diameter measured to the smallest diameter measured.

The last number, 3.99, is reflected more importantly in the depth %, so forget it here. It is also used as an identifying factor.

Girdle Thickness ::
Medium is my favorite, but hardly common. Slightly Thick is insignificantly different, only one notch up, and faceted is best, so there is not a frosted look to the side of the diamond. The faceting also helps gather light, and keep more of it in the diamond bouncing around. Thickness usually varies a lot in a diamond, such as “thin to very thick” etc. When it says just “medium to slightly thick, faceted”, it means they were successful at making it uniform all around, which is not common at all, and really helps overall light performance.

Certification ::
Commonly called the “cert”, a diamond grading report from GIA or AGS are the most accurate, reliable, and respected of all the reports, so this helps you feel assured of the quality. And if you ever want to trade up, only the GIA or AGS papers are going to help with that.

Overall, this is a super deal for the price. Everything about this diamond says Beauty, Value, Sensibility, Quality, Desirability… and the price is really right at $5,950.

So basically, just go buy it, or someone else will. Luckily if someone beats you to it, the site will redirect you to one that is good enough to be a clone, to get you started.